Machine for marking round articles



April 22, 1930 I F. J; SVIGN 1,755,749

' I MACHINE FoR MARKING ROUND ARTICLES April 22, 1930.

F. J. SVIGN MACHINE FOR MARKING ROUND ARTICLES Filed May 18, 1929 "5 sheets-sheet 2 Een@ 7de/r J. 565013716' Ap'ril 22, 1930. F. J. SVIGN 1,755,749

MACHINE FOR MARKING ROUND ARTICLES Filed May 1S, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Apr. 22', 1930 UNITED STATESA PATENT OFFICE FREDERICK J. SVIGN, or MILFORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AssreNoR To F. J. SEVIGNE i MACHINE COMPANY, OF NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, A CORPORATION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE MACHINE FOR MARKING ROUND ARTICLES Application liled May 18, 1929. Serial No. .364,285.

or words.

In order to provide a satisfactory machine for printing or branding citrous fruits, 1t 1s necessary to meet and overcome certain dlfliculties arising from the fact that such articles vary greatly as to size and also, to a considerable extent, as to shape. Some are much rounder than others.

In a general aspect, the presen-t machine may be said to be of the type illustrated 1n Letters Patent No. 1,501,817, granted to me July 15, 1924.

One of the objects of the present invention is-to provide the machine with improved mechanism for conveying the articles to and past the marking mechanism, with no stops during transit, thereby eecting a very high speed in the production of marked articles.

Another object is to provide a marking machine capable of operating on a wide range of sizes of articles such as oranges and grapefruit, even when the articles are supplied to the machine in mixed condition as to sizes.

With the above and other objects hereinafter referred to, my invention consists in the apparatus or machine substantially a-s hereinafter described and claimed.

Of the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective viewvof the machine in one of its embodiments.

Figure 2 represents a longitudinal section of the machine.

Figure 3 is a detail perspective view of a portion of one of the marking wheels.

Figure 4 is a -view similar to a portion of Figure 2, illustrating the operation on citrous fruit.

Figure 5 represents a section on line 5 5 of Figure 2. Figure 6 represents a section on line 6-6 of Figure 2.

Figure 7 is a detail elevation of a portion of themachine, looking in the direction of the arrow 7, Figure 2.

Figure 8 is a detail view of the parts at the left of'Figure 7.

.Figure 9 represents a section on line 9-9 of Figure 8, on a larger scale.

Similar reference characters desi ate similar parts or features in all of the views.

The frame of the machine may be of any suitable construction. The lower portions lgereof are illustrated at 12, with uprights A motor 14 has its'shaft connected by a belt 15 with the pulley 16 of a shaft 17 mounted in the uprights 13 (Figs. 1, 2 and 7). Near one end the shaft 17 has a pinion 18 meshing with a gear 19 of a shaft 20,

the latter having a pinion 21 meshing with a gear 22 of the shaft 23 which latter carries a plurality of marking wheels 24 which may vary in number accordin to the preferred width and capacity of t e machine. The drawings illustrate four marking wheels 24, but some of the machines constructed according to the present invention have considerably more marking wheels and cooperating article-feeding units, The periphery of each wheel 24, which is of metal, is roughened, preferably by transverse corrugations, andA carries a plurality of printing dies 25 which, in practice, are changeable to meet requirements as to the particular markings desired.

The shaft 20 (Figs. 1 and 2) has a sprocket 26 which is connected by a chain 27 with a lower sprocket hereinafter described, for actuating the mechanism which conveys the articles to position to be acted upon by the printing wheels.

The mechanism means of a rotating will now be described.

The shaft 17, at its other end from the described pinion 18, carries a pinion 28 (Figs. l and 7) meshing with the gear 29 of a shaftlike ribbon carrier 30 the hubs -31 of which are mounted to rotate in bearings in the frame uprights 13. Secured to the outer faces of the two hubs 3l are disks 32, 33, the diameters of which are such as to slightly overlap lthe bearings in the frame uprights, said disks serving to retain the ribbon carrier in proper longitudinal position, an-d also supporting the ribbon reels as will now be explained.

for inking the dies 25 by and travelling ribbon 7, 8- and 9) is an arm 39 which carries the ste -by-step ribbon-winding-up mechanism which will now b-e described.

Secured to the outer face of the arm 39 is al casing 40 containing the hub 41 of the shaft 42 for the winding-up reel 43, said shaft 42 extending through the arm 39 and rotatable therein. A portion of the hub 41 is formed as a gear 44 having forty one teeth. Between the gear 44 and theinner face of the casing is a gear 45 which is non-rotatable, as by means of a pin locking it to the casing. The gear 45 has forty teeth. Rotatable on the hub 41 is a disk 46 carrying a pinion 47 which meshes with both of the diiferential gears 44, 45. Secured to the disk 46 and also rotatable on the hub 41 is a ratchet 48 which is engaged by a pawl 49, the latter being carried by a lever 50 mounted on the hub 41 and projecting through an opening 51 inthe casing 40 and having a roll 52 at its outer end. A cam 5.3 (Figs. 7 and 8) is mounted in fixed position with its face in the path of rotation of the lever roll 52 so that each time that the ribbon-carrier 30 and its end reels rotates,the roll 52 will Contact once with the cam and the lever 50 will be actuated to cause its pawl 49 to actuate the ratchet 48. Overthrow of the ratchet is prevented by a suitable brake such as a spring-pressed plug 54 (Fig. 9). Since the ratchet is connecte-d to the disk 46 and the latter carries the pinion 47 which meshes with the dilferential gears 44, 45, the transmission of rotation to the reel 43 to effect feed of the ink ribbon along the rotary carrier 30 is very slow.

As indicated by dotted lines in Figure 7 there are passages for the ribbon a through the hubs 31 of the rotary carrier, but between said hubs the ribbon extends along the surface of the carrier, passing (Figs. 2, 7 and 8) over cushions 55 and through guides 56 mounted on the carrier 30, the cushions and guides alternating with each other. The cushions are in such locations, and the relative timing of rotation of the ribbon carrier and the die wheels 24 is such, that when the dies 25 are passing the carrier 30 th-e cushions 55 will press the ribbon a against the dies and transfer ink thereto.

The mechanism for transferring the arti# cles, without stopping, to position to be marked, will now be described.

The hereinbefore described chain 27 drives the sprocket. 57 of a shaft 58 (Figs. 1 and 2) mounted in hangers 59 (Fig. 6) depending from portions of the frame 12. The said shaft, incidentally. provides a pivotal support for a series of runways one of which is illustrated alone in Figure 6. In practice there is a pivoted runway in line with each marking wheel 24. Each runway includes an angulaimember having its hub 60 (Fig. 6) mounted on the shaft 58, one arm 61 extending under a wheel 24 and the other arm 62 extending down an-d having a spring 63 con-v ries a series of pushers 68 at predetermined spaced distances apart. The pushers are formed to present forward faces which are so curved or recessed (Figs. 1, 4 and6) as to retain the spherical articles b, whether large or small, with their central or largest diameters in line with the marking dies of the wheels 24. Each pusher 68 is connected to or is a part of a block 69 having pivotal connection with the chain and provided with a rearwardly projecting lug or heel to bear on the chain and ensure proper upright position of the pusher to carry an article b up the inclined path of travel.

Each arm 61 carries aA bracket 7l (Figs. 4 and 6) the upper edge of which is branched to support trough members 72, the chain 67 travelling in the narrow space between the inner edges of said members 72.

Each runway, in its entirety, is so positioned and mounted that during the operation of a pusher 68 it is travelling in an upwardly inclined direction the latter portion of its travel being nearly horizontal due to a small sprocket 73 near the sprocket 65 and over which the chain rides. This is to ensure the action'of gravitation to maintain each article resting against a pusher, and not in advance of it, as it approaches the marking wheel. In this connection it is to be understood that the pushers of each runway are so spaced, and the timing is such that the speed of travel of the chains 67 relatively to the speed of rotation of the wheels 24, will ensure the arrival of a pusher 68 in the approximate position illustrated by Figure 4 coincidentally with the arrival of a wheel die 25 above it. The peripheral speed of the wheels 24 is suiiciently in excess of the speed of travel of the pushers to causethe roughened surfaces of the wheels to roll the articles away from the pushers while the dies are printing the articles, and to then effect delivery of the marked articles to any suitable receptacle or to a trough one end of which is indicated at 74 in Figure 2,

The mechanism for vdeliveringithe articles to the runways will now be described.

At the supply end of the machine are two shafts 75, 76 (Fig. 2) the latter being driven by a chain 7 7 (Fig. 1) connecting a sprocket 78 of the shaft 58 with a sprocket 7 9 of the shaft 76. The sprocket 78 is much smaller than the sprocket 7 9 so as to effect a comparatively slow speed of travel to the slat ted conveyor platform now to be described.

Between side guides 80 supported by the frame of the machine are oppositely bevelled transverse slats 81 carried by chains 82 mounted on small sprockets 83 carried by shaft and larger sprockets 84 carried by the driven shaft 7 6. Guide strips 85 are supported at their outer ends by a cross 4bar 86 and at their inner ends (illustrated by dotted lines in Figure 2) by a transverse rod 87.

A flat plate 88 (Figs. 1, 2 and 5), preferably having an upwardly bent edge, extends onto the conveyor platform, It is pivotally Vmounted on the rod 87 so that it can freely rise and fall as the higherand lower surfaces of the platform strips 81 pass under its ed fe. Articlesk which are to be marked are elivered by the slatted platform onto the vertically oscillating plate 88 and roll down over said plate to position'to be taken individually by the pushers 68 and transferred up under the marking wheels. To properly direct the articles in a straight line when-rollin over the plate 88, guides 89 are provide said guides being connected at their upper ends to the strips 85 and supported by being over lapped thereon.l

The operation of the machine is as follows:

The articles, such as citrous fruit, are deposited promiscuously on the slatted conveyor platform. They do not need to be sorted as to sizes. Each article will automatically find its way singly into what may be termed a pocket bounded on two sides by the guide strips 85 and on the other two sides by the oppositely inclined surfaces of the conveyor slats 81.

It is to be understood here that the timing in speed of travel of the moving parts of the machine, due to the relative sizes of the gears, and chai-n sprockets, and to the spacing of the pushers and the spacing of the dies carried by the printing wheels, all as indicated in the drawings, is such that the articles (which may completely occupy singly all of the pockets of the conveyor) will be lifted singly out of the pockets by the plate 88, and each will then roll down over said plate and drop into a space between two of the pushers 68. The action of the slats 81, passl ing under the plate 88, causes the latter to oscillate vertically and practically lift the articles out of the pockets.

Owing to the upward incline of the runways, each article rolling from the plate 88 will find its way snugly against a pusher 68,

and centrally thereof due to the' reentrantV curvature of the pusher and the trough shape of the members 72, and will be carried up under a printing wheel, the latter part of such movement being in a nearly horizontal digection. The timing is such that a portion of the wheel carrying a markingdie will roll thc article in a nearly horizontal plane away from the pusher which brought it to position, and simultaneously mark it.y As will be understood by comparing `Figures 2 and 4, practically any size of citrous fruit can bc market by the machine, even if smaller ones alternate withv large ones, because there is ample space under each wheel 24 at the lower end ofthe pivoted runway, and the upper portion of said runway yields to any required extent when a pushed article reaches the wheel.

The slatted conveyor travels continuously, the pusher-carrying chains travel faster and also continuously, and the marking wheels rotate continuously in such timing that the dies 25 will approach position above the yieldable runways just as articles approach the upper ends of the latter. Therefore, since the articles supplied to the slatted platform are subjected to no stoppage at any point through the-machine, a very high speed of production of marked articles "iseffected, whether the articles are of uniform or varying sizes. The machine illustrated has produced marked oranges at the rate of 150 a minute for each of the plurality of feeding and marking units.

Having now described my invention, I claim:

1. A fruit-marking machine having a wheel provided with a. printing die, and said wheel being roughened in` peripheral alinement with the die, means for inking the die, and means for supplying firuit to position adjacent to the wheel in time for the fruit to be simultaneously marked by the die and rolled along by the wheel.

2. A fruit-marking machine having a wheel provided with a plurality of spaced printing dies, and said wheel being peripherally roughened in line with the dies, and means for supplying definitely spaced fruit successively to positions adjacent to the wheel in time for each fruit to be simultaneously marked by one of the dies and rolled along by the wheel.

3. A marking machine having a die-carrying wheel, means for supplying articles to position to be marked by the die, a rotary inkribbon-carrier, and means for rotating saidl carrier and wheel in time to cause contact of the ribbon with the die.

4. A marking machine having a wheel provided with a plurality of dies, means for supplying articles successively to position to be marked by the dies, a rotary ink-ribbon-carrier, and means for rotating said carrier and wheel in timed relationship to cause contact marked by the wheel die, said supplying of the ribbon with each ef the successively passing dies.

5. A marking machine having a die-carrying Wheel, means for supplying articles to po siti on to be marked'by the die, a rotary inkribbon-rarrier, means for rotating said carrier and wheel in time to cause contact of the ribbon with the die, and means for feeding the ribbon lengthwise of the carrier as it rotates.

(i. A nun-king machine having a plurality of die-carrying Wheels in axial alinement, means for supplying articles to positions to be marked by the dies, a rotary ink-ribboncarrier having cushions spaced correspondingly with the several die wheels, and means for feeding the ribbon lengthwise of the rotary carrier and over said cushions.

7. A marking machine having a plurality of die-carrying wheels in axial alinement, means for supplyin articles to positions to be marked by the dies, a rotary ink-ribbonca'rrier having cushions spaced correspondingly with the several die wheels and having ribbon guides alternating with said cushions, and means for feeding the ribbon lengthwise of the rotary carrier oyer said cushions and through said guides.

8. A marking machine having a die-carrying wheel, and yieldable means for supplying articles to position to be marked bythe wheel die, said supplying means comprising a chain mounted to travel in an upwardly inclined direction and having recess-faced pushers, trough-shaped guiding members being mounted at the sides of the path of travel of the pushers.

9. A marking machine having a plurality of die-carrying wheels, and independently yieldable means for supplying articles to position to be marked by the wheel dies, each of said supplying means including a chain having pushers shaped to present recessed operating faces.

10. A marking machine having a die-carrying wheel, and yieldable means for supplying articles to position under the wheel to be means including a chain having pushers with recessed operating mounted to travel preliminarily in an upwardly inclined direction and in a less inclined direction when passing under the wheel.

11. A machine of the character described, having a plurality of marking units and a travelling platform to deliver articles thereto, said platform co-mprisingan endless series of oppositely bevelled transverse slats, and means for limiting lateral movement of articles on said slats.

12. A machine of the character described, having a plurality of marking units and a travelling platform to deliver articles thereto, said platform comprising endless chains havbevelled transverse slats connected thereto located above the slats parallel with the path l of travel of the latter.

13. A machine of the character described, having a plurality of marking units and a travelling platform to deliver articles thereto, said platform comprising an endless series of oppositely bevelled transverse slats, means for limiting lateral movement of articles on said slats, and a pivoted plate having its free edge resting on said slats.

14. A high-speed marking machine having a continuously travelling supply platform for the articles to be marked, -an upwardly inclined continuously travelling series of pushers to receive the articles from the platform, and a continuously travelling die-carrier for marking articles advanced by saidpushers,

signature.

FREDERICK J. -SVIGN faces, said chain being 

